GSuite
Overview
G-Suite is a set of tools DDC-I has selected as an organization to enable collaboration. The tools include instant messaging, desktop sharing, telecon/video conferencing, whiteboard collaboration, collaborative word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation slides. Typically these tools will be accessed using a Google Chrome web browser, and there is a 9 dot grid in the top right that pulls down a list of the different apps.
Users should automatically be given an account. If an account has not been created, please contact the system administrator Kevin Lew mailto:klew@ddci.com x4366.
Document Management
At DDC-I we do not intend for documents to live long term in a Google Drive. Instead we want to collaborate on a document and then select one of the authors as the author to commit the document to our configuration management repository for Engineering or to the appropriate shared Sales/Marketing area in Lotus Notes or network server.
In the future, if a document is ever intended to live long term on Google Drive it should be created in a Shared Drive. This allows the document to be owned by the team and not an individual, where if that individual left the company the document would also be gone.
Getting Help
Since G-Suite is a standard set of tools, using their online support system at https://gsuite.google.com/support/ or a google search should resolve most issues
Notes on Tools
Teleconferences
Google Meet is the standard telecon service. The telecon is always a video conference where users may have their cameras disabled. There are no restrictions for inviting users outside of the G-Suite organization. If computer audio is not available for a participant the meeting does provide dial in information.
SoundConnect is still available for external telecons when necessary. Google Meet should be used for all internal meetings.
Initiating a Google Meet can be done via the following methods:
- From a Google Chat session by clicking the Add Video meeting icon and sending it
- From https://meet.google.com
- By pasting the URL for a defined meeting into your web browser
One method to schedule a meeting is to open your Google calendar, create an Event, click Add location or conferencing, and click Add conferencing. As long as a meeting's context is still active (defined in active chat room, upcoming calendar entry, etc the meeting URL will be valid. Therefore, it is possible to create a recurring event in your Google calendar to basically create your own meeting room URL that you can then forward and track via other methods such as Notes calendar entries. See #Email and #Calendar below
Desktop sharing
Google Meet described as the telcon service above allows Desktop Sharing. It is possible for more than one user to share, so two developers can be looking at each others screen.
Meetings teleconference was our standard prior to G-Suite. Our plan is currently limited to 3 concurrent sessions, which is insufficient for our collaboration needs. G-Suite provides unlimited meetings. However, this service is being kept as it allows the IT Staff to remotely control a users machine to diagnose issues.
Instant Messaging
G-Suite is in the process of transitioning from Google Hangouts to Google Chat. Either interface can be used right now. The Mitel UC client may still be used for presence/phone indicators and to make calls. However, since users may be on the "phone" via Google Meet or customer WebEx/Skype sessions an inactive phone indicator does not always mean a user is available for a call.
There is a stand-alone Chat app for Windows available at https://chat.google.com/download.
The Google Chat interface allows Rooms to be created. These rooms can be used by different teams for group messaging, as well as to start a group Google Meet desktop share telecon.
Instant messaging is limited to users within the organization.
Document Collaboration
See #Document Management above. It is possible to collaborate on documents with users outside of the organization. However, they will need to have a Google login/email to get access. When creating documents on Google Drive always ensure permissions are set for the appropriate set of collaborators.
DDC-I does not currently intend to use G-Mail. The Sales and Support CRM systems are integrally tied with Lotus Notes. All incoming email will go through our spam services and be delivered to Lotus Notes.
Calendar
Notes and Google calendar do not seemlessly integrate. It would be possible to partially synchronize calendars, but since email is through Lotus Notes we've found that it is best to define meetings in Lotus Notes and use the Notes calendar. Therefore, you may want to create a scheduled meeting in Google calendar, but it is best to get the invite info (URL and dial-in info) and create a meeting in Notes that is used to invite the participants. That way accept/reject statuses are properly handled.
